Commentary

Just a few comments on some blogs I follow:

Peanut Butter Runner
The title of this blog is enough for me to follow but a recent post made me chuckle  - Who has time to display breakfast for a picture let alone have the self control not to immediately dive into it?! Certainly not me!

The Daily David
David Chadwick, of Forest Hills Church, is an excellent speaker! Just love his complete clarity of things. I know I needed this one recently - "Three Tips for a Better Day"

Glacier County Honey
Blogging has allowed me to keep up with long lost friends/fabulous people and I am grateful for that. Courtney is a beautiful writer who has made me both laugh and cry, (as well as jealous of her gift of words.)

Another Mother Runner - http://anothermotherrunner.com/
Not referencing any specific posting, I just know that somewhere between the gripes of being tired and the high when the workout is over I have made some deep friendships. It is amazing how many miles we have logged but even more so how conversations flow as easily as the sweat. We all need this shirt.

Suri's Burn Book
Even Suri is talking about the Olympics, ha! I love watching the games but it is doing nothing for the already lack of sleep I get.

Adventures in Addie-sitting

(Alright, just another Title Spoof of an 80's classic!)

Today we attempted to go to the Charlotte Nature Museum. "Attempted" because we went there but did not go inside. I learned the hard way that they are closed on Mondays {bummer} but we were already there so there we stayed. We walked a short nature path around the museum while waiting on Jonah and his two older brothers to join us. Then I piled A & J into my jogger and held races with the older boys on our walk thru Freedom Park to one of the playgrounds.

As you can tell, Freedom Park is very pretty. This is one of the locations I am thinking about having the next round of family pictures done. I know it is super hot but we are penciled in with Simulacra Photography to do them in the next few weeks because am anxious to get the shot to use on the photo-to-canvas deal I purchased last year.

You Can't Do That On Television

... but you can do that in the Harris YMCA Family Locker Room.

Have no clue what I am referring to?  Just some classic (low budget) 80's television that I loved!

Happy day!

I cannot seem to get a video to actually upload to be a part of this posting but had to publish so all of you could see how precious of a serenade I received today (and a few times at that).  ENJOY THIS!

After breakfast, Jim and I headed out to the U.S. National Whitewater Center. I had hoped to spend the entire day there, maximizing the All Day Pass, but the rain held us up a little bit. Even though we just did two activities they were more then enough to fill the day. First we headed to one of the high ropes activities for Canyon Crossing and then we hit the whitewater, for some Rodeo Rafting. Our guide was politely apprehensive about this being out first time rafting there. I didn't see the big deal but we quickly learned this truly was a giant step up from their classic, Adventure rafting. We probably spent an equal amount of time swimming the rapids as we did paddling them. It lives up to its description as extreme. Before we even rafted our guide had us jump out and swim the first rapid then prove we could get back into the raft by ourselves. I found it to be an awesome experience but not something I will be recommending to many people. It really was a "we survived" sort of fun. Maybe I am secretly trying to hold on to my youth?!

Hot Fun In The Summertime

Gotta love Marshalls! I saw this pool last week but didn't buy it because wasn't sure $70 was a good price or not and shopping with Addie doesn't leave you much time to ponder such things.

Places must be already marking down summer items because today it was on clearance for $50 which seemed much more reasonable. So I put it in the cart to show Jim who, of course, immediately pulls up Amazon on his phone. (Amazon is our go-to spot for price comparison and typically has the best deal.) We come to find out this pool retails for something around $260. What?!

After blowing it up I see what all we were getting for our money. This thing is HUGE! Addie didn't care for the sprinklers but loves the slide. Cannot wait to have some friends of hers over to play.

A-choo!

Too bad mama is allergic to these little things because someone was IN LOVE!

Rinse & Repete

We made it to Latta Park yesterday and went back again today. With the summer heat, this must be a popular activity and therefore crowded but the playground next to the Splash Park was nice as well as shaded. (Adding this to the activity list of free, fun things to do in Charlotte.)

Good Times with Good Friends

It all started with inviting & encouraging the other staff families to join us for Storytime on Mondays at the Library and it has grown into something more. I would go as far as to say I have sort of created an After School Program/Mommy & Me Club. We have been doing lots of activities! Here is just what we have been up to this week:

No easier way to stay cool then heading right to a locker room after school/work and enjoying the Harris YMCA Outdoor Pool & Splash Park. Here we are with Jonah (middle) & Brogan (right).

Wednesdays are half-price days at Monkey Joe's. Not my favorite place but it is cheap fun that will wear any child out! You can tell the differences with one being an only child and the other being the 3rd boy. Jonah pushed Addie to try a few more things then she would normally be comfortable with. It was great until she got slammed by an older boy.

Today we were introduced to Baxter's Bunch Playhouse. It was further and more expensive then Monkey Joe's but worth every penny because Miss Priss had a BALL and broke some major self-confidence barriers. Yes, I still had to go down with her a few times but this place was newer, had better inflatables and was not overrun with kids not being watched by parents. 

Next week, we are planning to visit Latta Park and the sprayground there.

Domino Effect

Having the bed delivered today was more work then I really thought about. This morning we had to take apart and move the crib because that wall is where the new bed would be going. Since we were moving it we cleaned behind it {yuck} and then since we were cleaning, I wanted to rotate the rug. To do that we had to move out all the rest of the furniture, and since all the other furniture was moved we cleaned behind where they were as well. This is only the beginning too! :-)

Off to Marshalls after work to try and find some bedding (at least basic sheets) for the interim.

Natural Fun

Today, we made our first trip over to Charlotte Nature Museum with good buddies Jonah and Brogan. Learned that our the Nature Museum is included with our Discovery Place Kids membership so plan to visit a lot more this summer. Always looking for fun ways to beat this heat!

Moving up in the world

After plenty of furniture shopping (both physically driving around to stores and internet scouting), we decided to get Addie a day bed for her "big girl room". Eventually the plan is for her to take over the queen set but the transition from crib to queen is just too much (for me). We ended up ordering her a sleigh day bed with a trundle today and it is being delivered (set up included) on Thursday!

In the mean time I will easily be keeping myself busy looking up all the cute bedding out there. Addie has requested multiple times that there be red polka dots on the bed and officially claimed red and blue as her favorite colors. I can work with red and blue but have to convince Jim to repaint the walls. How would daddy like to try his hand at wallpaper too? Just one wall?!

I have started saving inspiration ideas to a Pinterest Board. Let me know if you spot (no polka dot pun intended) anything fun. I am leaving towards a plain quilt, polka dot sheets, fun rug and then tone-on-tone decals or wall paper on one wall. Or what about something like this for our little polka dot queen?!

Let Freedom Ring

In my Photo-a-day Challenge, today's thing was fun. Easy, everything about the 4th in Linville is fun but how to do that in just one picture?! My camera wasn't working so there are not the usual amount of pictures to choose from. I still managed to take about 60 with my phone though!

Last year the parade was a little too much but this year she loved it and waving at everyone in it. 

Her cute waves did get rewarded with plenty of candy!

  Off to the games. I was a terrible partner this year and flat out dropped our egg - sorry Taylor!

Unfortunately Addie and Anne Rankin's nap schedules didn't coincide for joint pool time.

She wanted to do this, but thought twice about that once we were sitting at the top.

 

Big girl ate almost 2 whole hamburgers for dinner then followed that up with some ice cream.

 

Since we went directly to the inflatables & balloon artists, we didn't get our standard picture 

with Grandfather Mountain in the background. Boo!

 

Anytime there is happy sand time, it must be documented! Here she is making "cakes".

 

Tired little girl but she was having a ball and didn't want to miss a thing, including dancing and fireworks. She wasn't scared but she didn't care to watch the firework show.

(FYI - I went with this picture as my fun shot.)

Anne Rankin on the other hand seemed to be soothed right to sleep by the bright lights and bangs!

 

One fun surprise was running into Addie's old teacher, Starr. 

Turns out her family's house is right around the corner from Poppy. Small World!

Welcome to the mountains

Live Bluegrass, Hampton BBQ and Addie's first solo golf cart ride! She loved the first two but not the third! You really cannot take your eyes off kids for 2 seconds. Luckily Addie (& cart) were unharmed!

Staying Cool

This was a HOT weekend and as it turns out was a city record. Today's high was 104 and yesterday's was 105! Despite the heat we actually managed to do quite a lot. Friday: went to Discovery Place Kids while daddy finally finished the outdoor chalkboard and then we went to our favorite Whiskey Warehouse for dinner. Saturday: I still got in a run, Addie's Music Together class, daybed shopping, lunch out and picked & ate the first veggies out of the garden! Sunday: family walk, swung at the park, washed cars/played with the hose, hit the grocery store and had popcorn & watched a "new" Disney movie - Beauty & The Beast. (These movies are a lot scarier then I remember so have been introducing them slowly to our sensitive little sponge. Like her momma, Addie loved all the songs and so far puts up with all my dramatic singing.)